Fast and Reliable Internet Service with Verizon FIOS
Written: Aug 03 '09
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| Full Review |
I've had my share of Internet service providers from dial-up services back in the day to cable modems and finally now, via Verizon's FIOS Internet service. This Internet service allows you to connect your home directly to Verizon's fiber-optic network to get what I think is some incredibly fast and reliable service.
Issues? Well with the service itself I really haven't had any and in the several years that I've had the FIOS Internet service, the only serious problem I had was that my first router died and I had to have a new one shipped out and then I had to set it up. In that case customer service wasn't stellar since it took a while to diagnose the problem and then when I tried to install the new one, I had to go through the customer service again to get it working.
That said, that's really one incident in over three years, otherwise my service has been working uninterrupted during that time and providing me with a quick experience on the Internet whenever I want it, which is something I can't say happened with Comcast when I had their cable Internet service.
Basics
FIOS service is based on the the fact that Verizon brings the fiber optic cables that they have on the power lines directly to your house. On the outside of your house is a converter box which converts the signals on the fiber optic lines to the more traditional signals to travel through your house and the wiring that they put in. These FIOS lines can carry Internet service, telephone service and TV services. In my case I have all three, but you can have any combination you want installed. We started out with the Internet and phone service since the TV wasn't available when we first moved into our new home. Since then the TV services have become available and we've had those installed too.
So the first thing to understand is that the installation can be a fairly long process since a new line needs to be strung between your house and the power lines and then the equipment needs to be installed and set up. In our case, it took the Verizon tech about five hours from the time he got there till the time that our telephone and Internet were up and running.
One thing to be aware of with the FIOS service is that once you have converted your Internet service and telephone service over to the FIOS system, they require electricity to run. There's a battery backup on the equipment that will provide a few hours of phone service if the power goes out, but after that, you won't have any phone service.
Billing is fairly simple. Verizon has three different levels of speeds available and each are billed at different amounts. I currently have the 2nd level speed since it came as part of a package, but I started with the slowest speed, which was still faster than Comcast and I didn't see a need to upgrade except that it turned out to be cheaper in the package versus what I was doing at that point.
Reliability and Experiences
The reliability of my FIOS Internet service has been good, really good. I haven't had to worry about losing the service in storms and I also find that while I'm using it, it just runs better than other Internet services that I've had. Downloads and uploads are also significantly faster than when I was on a cable modem. I also find that there's less timing out and less problems connecting to various sites and things.
The only problem I had with the service was that the included wireless router failed after about a year and a half of using it so I continued to have connectivity on my main computer which was hard connected to the router, but the wireless connections all failed. I called customer service which took a bit of time as I had to deal with their computerized help system. When I finally did talk to a person, they troubleshooted the router and found that it was broken and sent me the replacement. When it arrived, I had to reinstall it and had to call them to reinitialize it, which the included instructions didn't say, so I was a bit frustrated. Beyond that though, I haven't had any problems.
Besides that bad customer service experience, my interactions with the customer service have actually been quite good. When I first called to have the service set up I talked to a really helpful person who basically covered everything and anything and then more recently I called again seeing if there were ways I could reduce my costs and they suggested the bundle that was available, which has saved me about $30 a month.
With over three years of service under its belt, I haven't once come up to my computer and had the service unavailable, which I think is a pretty good accomplishment.
Website
Another nice feature about the FIOS Internet service is that Verizon has a fairly functional and easy to use website that will help you answer most questions you may have and will let you order or change services without too much interaction from customer service representatives.
Final Thoughts
Overall I am very happy with my Verizon FIOS Internet service. I honestly wouldn't trade it for any other service at the moment.
If Verizon FIOS Internet service is available in your neighborhood, I'd definitely recommend getting it.
FIOS TV Service
Recommended:
Yes
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